Crescenta Valley golf nabs share of league title

Crescenta Valley's Jocelyn Chia tees off on the third at La Canada Country Club for the CIF girls golf prelims.

Crescenta Valley's Jocelyn Chia tees off on the third at La Canada Country Club for the CIF girls golf prelims. (Tim Berger/Staff Photographer)

Charles Rich, charles.rich@latimes.com

LA CAÑADA FLINTRIDGE — Shortly after darkness fell Monday night, the last group in the Pacific League girls’ golf prelims found themselves still competing at La Cañada Country Club. The quartet aimed their putts toward the hole, but because of the lack of light, none of the shots came close to going in.

That left Crescenta Valley High Coach Lee Pope and Arcadia Coach Robbie Greep to reach an agreement — have Crescenta Valley and Arcadia share the league championship.

“It was so dark and the players were trying to locate their balls,” Pope said. “I made the suggestion to Robbie that sharing league would be the best thing and he agreed.

“Getting a league title was just one of the goals for us that we set coming into the season. We are pleased with that.”

Arcadia won the first nine-hole round earlier Monday, giving the Apaches no worse than a share of its fifth league title in a row. Crescenta Valley, Arcadia and La Cañada, which finished third, will advance to the CIF playoffs.

Irene Maemura of Burbank picked up medalist honors for the second straight match Monday. Maemura shot an even-par 34 during the first round, edging out Jocelyn Chia of Crescenta Valley by a stroke and Melissa Leo of La Cañada by three. The second round on Monday was the first of two rounds to determine the league’s individual champion. The last round will take place at 11:30 a.m. Oct. 17 at Brookside Golf Course No. 1 in Pasadena and will feature a field of 18.

“It’s a short course,” Maemura said. “I was able to hit the ball about another 50 yards with my driver.

“I hit my shots close to the greens and I feel like I’m starting to play even better.”

La Cañada came into Monday’s competition tied for the third and final available playoff spot with San Marino. The Spartans shot a 228 to edge the Titans by 12 strokes.

La Cañada Coach Rich Wheeler said the Spartans thrived on their home course.

“I looked at our scores over the last few matches and saw that we are getting three to four strokes better,” Wheeler said. “We came through at the right time.

“We came through in a do-or-die situation. It’s great to go to the playoffs because we earned it.”

San Marino Coach Wyeth Collo said the Titans struggled toward the end of the season.

“It’s disappointing with what happened because we started the season off well,” Collo said. “Then we just started to stumble toward the end.

“We have to go into the offseason and work on some things.”

Arcadia received 37s from Michelle Cheung and Kayla Yn and 44s from Ashley Cheou, Cynthia Guo and Mikaela Santos in the first round to finish with a 206. Crescenta Valley notched a 213, receiving a 42 from Alice Yoon, 44s from Audrey Chung and Andrea Han and a 47 from Gina Chung.

La Cañada got a 39 from Jennifer Kim, 46 from Madelyn Merchant, 49 from Keilee Bessho and 52 from May Lo.

San Marino, which took fourth with a 240, was led by Caroline Van Hiel with a 40. Also scoring for the Titans were Tess Denham with a 46, Elizabeth Van Hiel with a 49, Valerie Wang (51) and Gaby Arifin (54).

Burroughs finished fifth with a 228. Joany Gao had a 46 to lead the Indians, who got a 51 from Alex Chandler, 55s from Stephani Adachi and Evyn Freedman and a 59 from Tiffany Mirabal.

Burbank fielded a three-member squad Monday. It got a 47 from Tess Apinchapong and a 64 from Alexis Poche.